Showing off!

It is a year since I completed my GraduateDiploma at Whitireia , and it is thanks to whitireia that I have the exhibition at Objectspace which is my prize for getting 'Best of show' at the graduating exhibition last year. Although I haven't completed much work this year I have been featured in two magazines and had my work written up in another. They are

Textile Fibre Forum magazine from Australia issue110, 2013

Down Under Textiles also from Australia, current issue

newZealand Quilter, current issue

I also won theBernina prize at 'Changing Threads' exhibition in Nelson.

So many thanks to Whitireia NewZealand, Bernina New Zealand, and the magazines.

Now I just have to settle down to work again, I have been re consolidating, working out direction, dealing with family sickness and travelling this year. Next year I hope to get making! 

Every time I study art in any way, it always takes me at least a year to get over it, and find my own path again.

But before I can do anything I need to make class samples for the New ZealandQuiltSymposium2014 and make a commission which is needed as a Christmas present.

from an exhibition currently being held in Geelong of lithographs of botanical samples from Joseph Banks explorations of Australia.

Bitter Harvest dyeing

Last Thursday was the opening of 'Wind it Up' the Whitireia student exhibition. Here are some pictures of my pieces as the dye starts to travel through them. I really hated the lurid colour of the turquoise in the middle one so went back the next day and added extra dye to the cups which changed the turquoise to something less nasty.

The bowls at the bottom of the panels contain from left to right: Barley, Wheat and rice.
The barley and wheat are not human food grade and were sold as animal feed , anything not contaminated will be recycled as wheat bags or given to chickens. The rice was from a damaged bag begged from the supermarket. They were going to dump it in the skip. So I don't feel like I am depriving anyone of food. I am a bit worried that the smell of the grain might entice rats/mice/sparrows into the gallery though - so far its been OK.

 Day 2. I added extra dye to all the cups. The two on the left are made of pre-washed fabric. The one on the right is made of unwashed fabric.

At the opening of the exhibition there was a prize-giving. I was taking photos as 'official photographer' but had to have the camera taken off me when I won 'Best in Show' which was a big surprise.

I am in the centre, with the joint course coordinators, Chris White (left) and Deb Donnelly (right).

This is work by Kerry Reddy who was in my class. She is also a quilter, and there is an article about her solo exhibition work in the latest New Zealand Quilter magazine.








Below is a detail of work by Chloe Reweti. It consists of hundreds of laser cut screenprinted moths attached to wire stalks which are drilled into the wall. It is very time consuming to put together but very effective. It is on the feature wall of the exhibition at Pataka.

To see more of all the students work go to
http://winditup2012.wordpress.com/

New work

I've been working away on my pieces for the end of year show which is a groups show with the other graduating students from Whitireia. The show is at Pataka in Porirua from the 15th of December to the 15th of January but the work has to be in on Monday (5th ) for marking. Once again I am working with white fabric so I am having to do most of my work at home or the fabric gets very dirty. It's hard to work with white in a shared space. As technician I am also helping the students with their work and its getting a bit too close for comfort for some of them who left it a bit late to get started.

Here are some detail shots of my work for this show. They are based on pojagi, Korean pieced textiles and the patterns are field patterns from google earth. Once again they will be dyed vertically in the gallery but the dye will probably only run on opening night as it is too hard to control unless I am there all the time. The dye represents the dye which is dumped into rivers which then is used to water crops such as rice or wheat.

Actually I don't even know whether I will be allowed to run the dye in that gallery space. maybe I should match the dye I use to the carpet colour just in case!

These are detail shots only. Don't want to give the game away before the exhibition opens.
C

New Watermark wall-hanging

I've just spent the weekend making a 6th wall-hanging to be 'vertica0lly dyed'  this weekend at a show called Kete. It is on Friday 7th  - Sunday 9th September at The Academy of Finearts in Wellington. I finally found time to make it over the weekend after getting all the other essays, presentations etc out of the way.

There are also talks over the weekend. If you go to the website you can see who is on
http://www.nzafa.com/web/kete-contemporary-craft-and-design-fair

The latest wallhanging is the flattest yet. All the others had to be tweaked while they were hanging to try and get them to hang straight without wavy edges. This latest one is pretty flat (at the moment). Hopefully it will hang nicely in the gallery but a lot depends on humidity. Does anyone else find their quilts curl up at the bottom when hung in a gallery?

After this show, I need to start working out what I will make for the end of year show. At the moment I have very little idea what I will be making as I haven't had time to think, I just need some down time!

 I took this shot of the new wallhanging on the lounge floor on top of a grey blanket. I haven't got time to take before and after photos with special lights or anything so this maybe the only before shot I get.

It is similar to one of the ones i made for my last show but I have altered the outside border to make it more like the willow pattern plate. I think when the dye runs through it it will drip very nicely from the wider border.

I won't be able to fill the dye cups all weekend so it will run during the opening and then be allowed to dry. I'm down in Christchurch all weekend but will get back just in time to take it down on Sunday evening so it will be much less 'hands on' than my solo exhibition.

Watermark day 5

 Here is todays wallhanging. It is Zealandia - Karori Sanctuary in Wellington. It is a fenced sanctuary for native birds and has a big predator-proof fence.

 I chose the traditional blue like the willow plate but couldn't resist adding a bit of pink which turned purple.

 This is a final shot of the whole gallery with all 5 dripping dyed wallhangings. No. 1 and no.5 look as if they are  similar colours in this photo but they are quite different blues in real life.

Thats it folks - the show is over. I'd like to thank Clare Plug , Ian Smith, James Wratt, Margery Smith, David Wratt, Chris Wratt, Pheobe and Nina Smith, Deb Donnelly, Peter Deckers, Viv Atkinson and all the staff at the Visual Arts department of Whitireia Polytechnic for their help with this exhibition, I couldn't have done it without you!

Tomorrow- images of the shadows formed on the walls behind the hangings, incidental details, hopefully images of the fabric which mopped up the dye at the bottom (rolled up in the guttering).

Day 1 "Artist in Residence' experiments! -screenprinting

Today was my first day as 'artist in res' at Whitireia Polytechnic in Porirua, New Zealand. I have the use of an office to store my stuff and to work on small bits and pieces as well as the use of the textile studio and darkroom when the students aren't using them, On Tuesdays and Thursdays I help out with the new Textile Mastercraft class.The Mastercraft class is 6 months long and is level 5. Many of the students will go on from there into the degree course.

The black and white pictures are my first experiments. I wanted to see what would work best as a photographic screenprint. I have always done designs with strong black lines but this time I wanted to find the thinnest line I can get away with, as well as which drawing/painting media are the best.

From left to right these are
Graphite pencil, permanent marker, B&W photograph, sharpie
Fern, doily, enamel pen, weed seed heads
10-24point text(bold), magazine photo, scraperboard, comic book

Light charcoal, lino print, indian ink splatter, gaphite pencil
Indian ink drawing, charcoal, monoprint, black paint
oil pastel, rotring pen, oil pastel, Indian ink (drawn with twig)

The purple print shows the results. Amazingly most of the media worked. The light charcoal, rotring pen, graphite and scraperboard pattern were the least successful as the lines were a bit too thin or the mark was too pale. The 10 point text worked better than I thought and the text didn't work at all on the comic picture (it says '...what the' ).

Best was Indian ink, lino block print, enamel pens, sharpie, laser printer text, objects like plants and doileys, oil pastel.

That's enough for today. I did do some more experiments but I'll save them for tomorrow as I don't know how to put the photos in the right order. At the moment they all end up at the beginning of the text.